Talk:Bob Beers

Interesting disambiguation issues

This article name presents interesting disambiguation issues because in the words of administrator

The difficulty, Bobbeers, is that there are two politicians with the same name. Two Nevada politicians. Two Las Vegas politicians. Both former state legislators. Both Republicans. That makes it very difficult to distinguish between the two of you fairly in our Wikipedia article titles. I have no quick, ready answer. My guess is that you have faced this issue before. We use a middle initial for the other Bob Beers. Do you ever use a middle initial? How have you set yourself apart from the other guy in the past? Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it, 16 August 2014 (UTC) (comment posted to the talk page of the article currently titled "Bob Beers (Las Vegas City Councilman)".

I am one of the two. In fact, the other guy went by Robert Beers but ran for Nevada's near-volunteer legislature as "Bob Beers" in 2006. He lost re-election in 2008 and returned to calling himself Robert Beers. I lost re-election that year as well, and returned to CPA work continuing to call myself Bob Beers. I have no citation for this but the personal experiences of Nevadans, of which I am one. Robert's Disqus account is under Robert, not Bob, and he is a frequent commenter on the Las Vegas Review Journal website.

The disambiguation policies are discussed at WP:NCPDAB:

If there is no usual form of conventional disambiguation, place a disambiguating tag in parentheses after the name. Examples:

• William Henry (gunsmith), William Henry (chemist), William Henry (congressman), William Henry (actor), ...
• Eddy Merckx (the cyclist; primary topic, so no tag required), Eddy Merckx (billiards player)
• Prince (musician), disambiguated from the other meanings of "Prince" listed at Prince (disambiguation)

The disambiguater is usually a noun indicating what the person is noted for being in his or her own right. In most cases these nouns are standard, commonly used tags such as "(musician)" and "(politician)". Try to avoid using abbreviations or anything capitalised or containing hyphens, dashes or numbers (apart from instances where more specific guidelines specify particular exceptions). Try also to limit the tag to a single, recognizable and highly applicable term.

Sometimes disambiguaters need to be more specific. For example, "Engelbert Humperdinck (musician)" could still refer to two different people, so Engelbert Humperdinck (composer) and Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) are used.

This presents, in order:

• William Henry (conressman) - Henry's title is used to disambiguate him. This is his last title, and also his highest title (which also makes it correct under English etiquette conventions.
• "commonly used tags such as "(politician)" - which, used alone, would fail to distinguish two of the Bob Beers.
• additional guidance in the last paragraph - but there are no one-word common nouns that distinguish them.

So - should the disambiguation tags use the current office held? The highest office held? The noun "politician" with the addition of "active" and "inactive"? Those tags might need to be changed if I exit public service, or if Robert re-enters public service.Bob Beers 19:54, 16 August 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobbeers (talk • contribs)

The words "active" and "inactive" would absolutely not be used. As I've said before, articles aren't titled according to the highest office held, but according to what the person is known for. Thus, the incumbent Governor of Wisconsin is at Scott Walker (politician) and not Scott Walker (governor). So, as I've suggested, move Bob L. Beers to "Bob Beers (politician, born 1951)" and Bob Beers (Las Vegas City Councilman) to "Bob Beers (politician, born 1959)". Tiller54 (talk) 13:50, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

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